The invention relates to a friction clamping and/or emergency braking arrangement for mounting to a carriage guided in at least one guide track wherein the arrangement comprises at least one friction retaining structure with at least one friction shoe supported in the housing so that it can be pressed into engagement with the guide track, wherein the friction braking arrangement is movable by the force of a spring in one direction and, for a release by a force generated by a pneumatic, hydraulic, electromagnetic, electromechanical or piezoelectric drive means, is movable in the opposite direction.
From the brochure “MK/BW/TK/KW/HK/AU Clamping and Brake Elements for Linear Guide Arrangements” of the company Zimmer GmbH, Rheinau-Freistett, published in January 2001 a brake and/or clamping arrangement with a slide wedge drive effective in two ways is described (see pages 24 and 25). In this arrangement, a spring force storage structure which can be pre-tensioned by a pneumatic drive means is used for the gas-pressure-free clamping and braking. If, for example, the gas pressure drops as a result of a faulty operation, the pre-tensioned spring element of the spring energy storage structure is released for actuating the friction shoes. The gas volume to be displaced by the moving pneumatic components upon occurrence of such a fault prevents, by its throttling effect, an instant response of the braking structure.
In order to pretension the spring storage device, a commercially available motor or a multi-clamping device may be used. A multi-clamping structure has been used for many years by Volkswagen in a vehicle jack. Today such clamping structure are available for example in building material supermarkets in connection with presses for cartridges filled with cementing or sealing materials.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a clamping and/or emergency braking arrangement which has a large clamping force, requires little space and has a small mass and, upon a fault occurrence, is rapidly effective.